Friday, April 24, 2009

Get Back to Work, You

One great thing about a "real" weekend; i.e. sitting around doing nothing for a few days, is that at the end of the respite, work is again appealing. I'm headed out in a few minutes for a big weekend of work, ready to get to it.

I see this sort of thing all the time with my retired friends. When they first retire, they believe they'll be happy to play golf for the rest of their lives. And, for six months, they really are happy. After that they go back to work at Starbucks or the hardware store. Some retirees don't even wait for six months, but launch immediately back into volunteer work or go back to school straightaway. A life of complete, full-time leisure turns out to be boring, even depressing.

We humans are working animals. Sitting around with nothing to do isn't good for anyone. BUT - taking a break, resting in between bouts of work? A Very Good Thing. The Sabbath was - and still is - such a great idea.

Shabbat Shalom ya'll. Have a good weekend. Try taking a whole day off from all work, you'll be amazed at how refreshing it can be. Me? I'm rolling up my sleeves, ready for my work week. Oh yeah!

22 comments:

I completely agree with you Reya... One cannot stay idle for too long..it can do more devastating things to your mind than a workload filled life. In fact people from all age groups go through the same feeling. Even when I was in school I remember getting bored during our summer holidays after the first few days of sitting in front of the idiot box... Doing nothing can be more tiring than working non-stop all day long... But definitely all of us deserve a good break once in a while....

Lovely photos... as usual.Now contrary to what you have said... I will have been retired 2 years next month and while I did volunteer work during the election time I find I am as yet not ready to commit my "free" time to any group or job. The time may come, but so far I am busy with taking care of home & husband & dog. Lakeviewer at sixtyfivewhatnow is the role model to follow for retirees, not me. Maybe that will change in time.

I will soon have been retired for 2 years and I can truthfully say I don't miss work or a fixed schedule in the least. I stay busy much of the time, but I get to choose how to be busy and there is a lot to be said for that. Today I will spend much of the morning working on Bach's Italian Concerto, will go for a swim at the local rec center ($2 for me as a senior), will figure out how to make something out of the giant turnip I got in our weekly CSA crate, and will finish a good mystery. I can't imagine a better day that would include work, unless it would be working in Hill's Kitchen on a very part-time basis, something that's crossed my mind a few times...

We all need meaningful projects, whether we get paid for them or not. There's no way it can feel like a holiday if it just goes on forever; which is the problem for a lot of 'retired' ones. You retire from a job, not from life! (But a day off is a good idea for sure.)

I often think about being retired but don't know if that will ever happen totally. To me, retiring means switching to a new career or task or hobby. So many things to try, so little time on Earth. But definitely, a little time away makes things new again.

The Iris photo is very erotic. The open flower looks like an inviting female. Open. Soft. Flowing. The tight little bud below looks like a...well, a seeker. Or maybe its just me needing a spring fling.

So true. When I first moved here, I took 6 months off, and after the first few weeks, kind of went crazy. I would find myself driving past schoolyards and wondering about what was going on in classrooms, who the kids were, what the teachers were working on...

Now I feel overworked, so I guess the challenge becomes finding the right balance of work and respite times!

Lizzy I believe taking care of a house, a dog and a husband is full time work!

By "truly leisure" I mean someone else cooks your meals, cleans your room, goes shopping for you, pays the bills. I don't know anyone who benefits from TRUE leisure. But I bet there's someone out there who is fine and dandy in this very situation.

Didn't mean to generalize, and NO Merle I wasn't talking about you - though - weird, isn't it, that I mentioned golf and the hardware store. You're not the only one out there doing what you do, but you do it with more style than anyone I know!

As for myself, I am not interested in retirement - not ever. I'd like to have some financial security some day ... wonder if that will ever happen? ... so I can write my book. In the meantime I am so happy to put my hands on my clients.

Maybe I should have said, I am a working animal. Don't know 'bout the rest of you!

I'm trying to take a one-day sabbatical today, alone, and it's amazing how it clears the mind and uplifts the soul. I enjoyed this post. I'm leaving one comment but I'm going to be here a while reading and looking at your beautiful photos. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll see the Gold Puppy.

I wholeheartedly agree with you, Reya. After about a month off I begin to get restless. Working overseas was wonderful with six weeks off for vacation, though it could be divided up into different increments.